Fast-casual restaurants and healthcare facilities will help US janitorial and housekeeping cleaning suppliers grow, finds Kline

Stringent sanitising rules within a growing number of assisted living facilities and nursing homes, as well as in acute care settings such as hospitals, drive growth of the janitorial cleaning products market in the US.

However, the relatively fresh and rapidly growing concept of fast-casual restaurants represent the highest growth, according to the 'Janitorial and Housekeeping Cleaning Products USA: Market Analysis and Opportunities' just-published by worldwide consulting and research firm Kline & Company.

The top three end-use segments of the janitorial and housekeeping cleaning products market estimated at $4 billion in 2014, together, account for close to 56% of all janitorial cleaning product sales in 2014.

Contract cleaners, the leading end-use segment accounting for a little over 30% of the industry total, have increased penetration and revenues, but changes in floorcare have affected this leading segment. To cut costs, facilities managers often reduce the frequency of waxing and floor stripping, causing the formerly vibrant floorcare sector to post a flat to modest growth rate.

As a result of growing awareness of better hand hygiene practices, the handcare class continues to outperform the other product groups, driven by strong sales of foam hand soaps and instant hand sanitisers. While regular outbreaks of various infectious diseases have a dramatic impact on sales of hand hygiene products on the short-term basis, the real growth comes from the increasing knowledge that hands are the primary medium for the continuous transmission of various critical diseases. Handcare remains the prominent product class for suppliers to increase their revenues.

A diverse group of suppliers competes in the janitorial market. Laura Mahecha, Kline's I&I industry manager, notes: "Kline segments the market into three primary groups: national branded suppliers, household cleaners companies, and private labellers with a few suppliers overlapping multiple categories. Lastly, there are local and regional suppliers, but these players are increasingly marginalised in the business." Leading suppliers in the janitorial market include Sealed Air, Ecolab, Gojo, Zep, and Spartan.

"In contrast with food service distribution that has undergone rapid consolidation and is now led by major national companies like Sysco, USFS, and Gordon, the janitorial market is comprised of a vast number of intermediaries. This limits chemical suppliers' ability to build market share in the janitorial business comparable to that of food service and laundry chemical businesses."

Among a range of critical buying factors rated by the report's survey respondents, product performance is rated the most important in their buying decision. Product safety is ranked second. Environmental friendliness receives a lower rating emblematic to the current business environment. While the industry is actively promoting environmentally friendly products, green cleaning must be cost-neutral for these products to resound with end users.

While this market is affected by the general growth of revenues for each end-use segment, budget constraints, resistance to price increases due to focus on maintaining tight margins, and other market and economic trends continue to put pressure on the market for janitorial cleaning products.Fast-casual restaurants are poised for rapid growth due to the strength of this segment seen in store sales, as well as the ability for these mostly chain restaurants to add new units. Upcoming healthcare regulation changes may result in revenue and cost changes for hospitals; however, cleanliness and sanitation is too important to economise on in this segment, which is also expected to experience solid growth.

Janitorial and Housekeeping Cleaning Products USA: Market Analysis and Opportunities is a research of the US away-from-home cleaning products business. Based on nearly 1,100 interviews, combined with the data and insight gleaned from the seven previous research editions conducted over the past 25 years, this study provides a complete analysis and perspective of this important market. Based on a statistically-significant platform of structured interviews with commercial, industrial, and institutional end users the study provides 2013 and 2014 market data, as well as forecasts to 2019.